This story originally appeared in the French publishing trade magazine Livres Hebdo.
The European commission agency Directorate General for Competition launched an investigation yesterday into several publishing companies, including all the major French publishers, suspected of possibly colluding on the price of digital books.
"The European Commission can confirm that inspections have been conducted into companies operating in the publishing industry. … The Commission has evidence to suspect the companies concerned may have violated EU rules prohibiting anticompetitive practices," said the spokesman of the Directorate General for Competition, in a statement on March 2.
The previous evening, the site 01net.com revealed that several investigators appeared at the headquarters of [the French publisher] Albin Michel, a fact later confirmed by the CEO of the house, Esmenard Francis. he investigative teams also hit other French houses, including La Martiniere, Gallimard, Flammarion, and Hachette Livre. "It's amazing," said the head of one of these houses, “the laptop and the smartphone was seized yesterday, to be returned in the afternoon.”
"The Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from the national authorities on competition," says DG Competition. In its opinion issued last year, the French Competition Authority had expressed some reservations about the legal soundness of the agency contract, though ultimately held it could still be used.
All group leaders and executives working on digital books must now respond to these investigations. Publishers were told they must be kept available for these "men in black," as many within the industry have dubbed the investigators, including suspending their travel plans or vacation.
"The inspections are a preliminary step in the fight against anticompetitive practices. The fact that such inspections are being done does not mean that the Commission has conclusive evidence of anticompetitive behavior, nor and does it foreshadow the outcome of the investigation itself," said DG Competition. The group added that "no legal deadline for conducting investigations against anticompetitive practices."
